One Nation leader Pauline Hanson may step down from the Senate to contest a lower house seat in the next federal election.
Senator Hanson told FiveAA Radio on Tuesday that she was weighing up a move from the Senate to the House of Representatives.
“Yes, it is on the cards and I have to consider that,” she said.
”It’s about getting representation for the people of this country and carrying forward what I want it to do.”
Senator Hanson added she was “surprised” to hear her chief of staff James Ashby discussing the prospect on Sky News the night prior.
On Monday, Mr Ashby was asked about One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce’s claim that he would recontest the seat of New England instead of running for the Senate if the party won the Farrer by-election.
“Pauline Hanson might step down from the Senate too and run for the seat that she lives in, so don’t count your chickens,” Mr Ashby said.
“And if Barnaby chooses to stay in the lower house, you’ll have two very convincing, strong leaders that can lead a conservative Australia.”
Senator Hanson won the seat of Oxley in the 1996 election as an independent. She had begun the contest as a Liberal candidate but was promptly disendorsed for her comments on Indigenous Australians.
She lost the seat two years later and did not return to parliament until she was elected as a Queensland senator in 2016.
Earlier, Nationals leader Matt Canavan branded One Nation a party that “struggles to stay together” amid reports of infighting within the populist party over its Farrer candidate David Farley’s shifting political affiliations.
Mr Farley’s loyalty to One Nation had come under scrutiny by senior party figures, Nine Newspapers reports, after he failed to inform Senator Hanson and Mr Ashby of his previous support for Labor.
These links were later revealed by The Sydney Morning Herald in April.
In 2021, Mr Farley attempted to join Labor as a branch member before personally donating to the party’s election fund as late as 2023. He was also a one-time NSW Nationals member.
The Narrandera-based agribusinessman is now running on the One Nation ticket in the hope of clinching the rural NSW seat of Farrer.
Mr Farley and independent Michelle Milthorpe are widely seen as the frontrunners in the contest for the lower house seat, formerly a Liberal stronghold held by one-time opposition leader Sussan Ley.
Senator Canavan said on Tuesday he was “perplexed” by the apparent discord within One Nation.
“They’re obviously the favourites in this race. Normally, One Nation wait (until) after election before they all divide themselves and leave the party,” he told Sky News.
“Twenty-seven of the 37 members elected to parliament (on the One Nation ticket) have left within a year of being elected. This time, they seem to be splitting up before the election.”
He said voters in the Farrer electorate had to take into account One Nation’s lack of confidence in its own candidate ahead of hitting polling booths on May 9.
“I mean, they do call themselves One Nation … but there’s many, many egos in that party, and they just seem to struggle to stay together, to stick together, to provide the long-term team that’s needed to get our country going again,” he said.
